thanks, always aiming to please the discerning consumers!

On a roll here Alan, No 3 is the one for me so far ... beautiful colours and a kind of soft focus effect ... gorgeous!

It's a bit of fun, but also a prod for getting out with the flash, or for those who were not aware of the practical benefits of HSS outdoors. I hope it might encourage others to have a go, because I love flash photography, it is great fun and very satisfying to see results that were not possible without it.

Thanks Alan and Stephen also

I know, you're right ... It may have to be ' the one that got away' ... If I remember rightly I was prevented from moving to the right by the presence of a few people who I didn't want to include ... Never mind, next year ....

I find the Pentax grip dials and buttons very solid and secure, the feel matches that of the body equivalents perfectly, and that tactile consistency is an important part of it. Truckerathome, are you using a Pentax original or third party?

For me the Pentax BG-4 grip has always been just another part of the camera, and it remains permanently on the K7. I don't really have any need for extended battery life, so I just use the battery slot in the grip which removes the need to take the grip off to change the battery. But I have two batteries which I rotate in use, and it needed for a long shoot then I will load up the body with the other battery so its all ready.

I make full use of the vertical format controls and I do shoot a lot of portrait style images, so for me a quick flip up and over and the camera is firmly 'gripped' with the fingers over the controls almost exactly like when shooting ' landscape' with the body controls. This duplication and reproduction of the controls in the familiar layout oh the grip is integral to my use of it, most of the point, as well as the extra stability and security in handling.

Come on all you Pentax Dads & Mums, the weekend is coming soon and that could mean a trip to the playground & park. Well, the fun shouldn't be only for the kids ... pack you own toys and be ready to catch some great lighting balanced images using some High Speed Sync flash techniques, and make the outing something truly special

The top of the slide is a great place to try this out, as is the wider area with lots of bright sky in behind. So grab your Pentax DSLR and an HSS capable flashgun and lets get going! I've used here my K7, gripped (great for stability), DA 18-55 f3.5-5.6 AL WR, and Pentax AF-540FGZ :

The problem with many 'normal' flash shots in these sorts of conditions is that the maximum flash sync speed (180th sec) can severely limit your ability to control the ambient (background) exposure, especially if you prefer a wider aperture, which will likely be desirable. Putting the camera on P with fill flash from the flashgun will likely result in something like this ....






Oh no Dad ... thats not good - you didn't set the controls properly. The shutter speed of 180th sec has overexposed the background resulting in a total washout! Yuck

Lets try that again. Now firstly it helps if you've got a total little poser and show-off to practice with ... luckily I've got one of those ... (clearly she takes after her mother :wink. Then all thats left to do is get the camera and flash set up - thats the fun bit. So, for this we're not going to use P mode at all (I was tricking you there), but rather switch to M mode (manual exposure) ... this will allow us to increase the shutter speed faster than 180th sec after the flash is set to HSS mode.

I tend to point the camera up towards the sky and press the green button - this will meter for the brightest parts and give us a good exposure for the sky, leaving our flashgun to correctly expose the foreground and subject. Leaving the AF-540FGZ in P-TTL mode gives us the option to apply flash compensation, and I would generally use -0.5 or -1.0 stop for this type of shot.

OK, so you've got your camera and flash ready, camera is showing ISO 200, f5.6, 1/640th sec (thats FAST ) .... push the button - Click / flash!!





Hey, now we're talking! This time the exposure of 1/640th sec at f5.6 has given us a nicely controlled background with detail in the sky, but the flash has lit up our little poser there and given that sparkle, and the whole thing is much more balanced ... happy Dad

Here's a couple more ...


Both at 1/400th sec at F5.6 ...









The technique is good out in where the views are wider, anywhere where the sky is dominating behind and you want to bring out your subject - here I tend to manually reduce the ambient brightness by dialing in around 2/3rd to 1 stop less exposure than my metering - so in this next shot on the hillside, my metering when pointing over towards the hills and sky gave me 1/300th sec at f6.3, but I carried right on and dialed in 1/640th sec, just to darken down and background and help my subject stand out - aided of course with that little bit of HSS fill - in ....






1/320th Sec f6.3






1/400th sec f6.3





OK - hope you've enjoyed the show .... and I hope you Pentax Mums & Dads, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, grandpas and grandmas, will all get out there and try some High Speed Syncing! If anyones got some examples to show then please feel welcome !

Do you think you could get away with, perhaps, a half stop less exposure generally, just to secure those whites, then just brighten them a little on the computer ... You'll get a bit more shutter speed as well.

The whitest patches have the appearance of having been overexposed, but then reduced in processing .... This may be the result of the camera processor automatically compressing the range at conversion. The histogram you see is after compression. That's just the impression I get from the appearance.

Ok, you're in the clear then ... You'll be able to book up those wedding jobs